The health benefits of honey are well known, while those of bee bread were not studied in a similar way. This product, which is essential for feeding bees, has enormous potential for the maufacturing of functional products that contribute to good human health.
Preliminary research has been conducted to evaluate the effects of honeydew honey enriched with bee bread, due to the contribution of bioactive substances in the overall formulation. (1)
Bee bread
Bee bread is the product of pollen, nectar and saliva (enzymes) stored by bees inside their cells, which is not immediately consumed and undergoes a fermentation process. The presence of bee bread within a bee colony depends on the amount of pollen collected based on availability in the field, the nutritional needs of the bees themselves, and the storage capacity available due to the presence of brood and pollen. (2)
The process of producing bee bread begins with the collection of pollen from flowers, which is then mixed by the bees with nectar or honey and saliva containing digestive enzymes. At this stage, the flower pollen is transformed into bee pollen, stored in the pollen basket in the bee’s hind legs and transported to the hive, where non-flying bees fill the hive cells with a mixture of bee pollen and honey. A thin layer of wax is then added to protect the product from oxygen and other environmental factors.
The product is little known to consumers, as production has been severely limited due to the lack of appropriate harvesting methods by beekeepers that do not damage or partially destroy the hive. In Italy, beekeeper and veterinarian Giuglio Loglio invented and tested an innovative harvesting tool with the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute (IZS) of Lazio and Tuscany, which can be used for sampling and harvesting for commercial purposes. (3)
Composition of bee bread
The lactic fermentation that bee bread undergoes makes the product more digestible and richer in nutrients and bioactive substances of various kinds. The basic composition is influenced by the geographical and seasonal context and, consequently, by the botanical species present. However, it mainly consists of: (4)
- water;
- proteins (enzymes) and free amino acids, including tryptophan, phenylalanine, valine, histidine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, threonine, alanine, arginine, tyrosine, glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, serine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and lysine;
- carbohydrates, including mono-, di- and tri-saccharides, which mainly comprise fructose and glucose, and small amounts of sugars such as maltose, trehalose, turanose, raffinose and melezitose;
- fatty acids and organic acids, including lauric, myristic, linoleic and linolenic acids, and acetic and oxalic acids;
- vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins A, B1, B2, C and E (including α-tocopherol), and potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, sodium and zinc;
- microorganisms, divided into bacteria, mainly lactic acid bacteria (LAB), and beneficial fungi that play an active role in the fermentation process of bee bread and constitute its ‘microbiota’.
Among the characteristic functional molecules are antioxidants, such as polyphenols identified in more than 32 different compounds, including flavonoids, phenolic acids and other antioxidant components. Thanks to these substances, several researchers suggest the use of bee bread as a common food preservative or biofunctional food supplement, or even as different therapeutic strategies:
- prevention of oxidative stress and associated diseases such as cardio-metabolic, neurodegenerative and cancerous diseases;
- hypotensive action thanks to the enzymes it contains, including the proteases pepsin, trypsin and papain;
- antimicrobial and probiotic action, thanks to its bactericidal action against various food pathogens such as Salmonella spp. Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli among the most important, while the ‘microbiota’ of bee bread, especially the Bacillus and Lactobacillus genera of bacteria, have important probiotic and technological properties (e.g. starter cultures, protective cultures);
- various functional properties, such as hepatoprotective action, strengthening of visual acuity and improvement of athletic performance.
Adulteration of bee bread
Recent consumer interest in this type of product has led to an increase in demand and greater interest on the part of beekeepers in marketing this type of product, despite current technical shortcomings and good practice in storing bee bread to preserve the health of bee colonies.
To meet this increase in demand, coupled with a reduced supply from beekeepers, various food frauds have begun to emerge, including adulteration in the first instance, which replaces elements of the product with others that are foreign to its original composition.
At present, there are no reference standards for identifying food fraud in bee bread, but guidelines from various researchers suggest focusing research on pollen composition and vitamin, amino acid and fatty acid content through palynological and spectroscopic analysis. Advanced research techniques may include proteomics and alternative genomics, or metagenomics for the analysis of bee bread microbiota.
Mixture of bee bread and honeydew honey
Like bee bread, honey contains numerous substances with antioxidant properties, and this aspect is particularly pronounced in dark honeys. For this reason, researchers wanted to verify the effect of combining honeydew honey and bee bread on the antioxidant capacity of the finished product. To this end, the focus was placed on the profile of polyphenols and their total content, whose action was the subject of an antioxidant assay (DPPH) and the value of proline and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) based on the presence or absence of bee bread.
The results showed that even small concentrations of bee bread (0.5% w/w) had a small but significant effect on the antioxidant capacity of honeydew honey. This effect increased significantly with increasing concentrations of bee bread. In addition, there was an increase in proline (the predominant amino acid in honey) and diastase enzyme activity (an indicator of honey freshness) without changing the HMF value, which is linked to ageing as a result of browning due to thermal and/or photosensitive oxidation.
The results obtained are still preliminary and require further investigation, but it has nevertheless been possible to observe the benefits of adding bee bread to honeydew honey, which may have a potential positive effect on human health. To better understand the role and contribution of bee bread, tests should be carried out on other types of monofloral honey or on different polyfloral honeydew honeys.
Provisional conclusions
Bee bread is a bee product of exceptional nutritional and health quality. Alone or in combination with honey, it can stimulate various biological functions that contribute to maintaining optimal health. However, it is necessary, on the one hand, to investigate its contribution to other types of honey and, on the other, to verify the following aspects to ensure that it can be marketed without any problems:
- absence of pesticide residues, including glyphosate, which continues to be present, especially in pollen and little identified in hives, with the exception of Italy, where more research has been carried out ; (5)
- certainty of the existence of a history of significant use and consumption in the EU, the lack of which could determine the status of novel food in the EU;
- development of methods for determining food fraud;
- sustainable increase in bee bread production by beekeepers, without undermining the health of bees and the status of colonies, already threatened by various climatic and environmental factors and exposure to pesticides.
Dario Dongo and Andrea Adelmo Della Penna
Photo courtesy Natiflow.com
References
(1) Sęk A. et al. (2025) Preliminary Research on the Health-Promoting Value of Honeydew Honey Enriched with Bee Bread. Molecules 30(2):256, https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30020256
(2) Roessink I. et al. (2021) Beebread consumption by honey bees is fast: results of a six-week field study. Journal of Apicultural Research 60(5):659-664, https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021.1915612
(3) Loglio G. et al. (2019) An Innovative Home-Made Beebread Collector as a Tool for Sampling and Harvesting. Bee World 96(1):16-18, https://doi.org/10.1080/0005772X.2018.1556905
(4) Bakour M. et al. (2022) Bee Bread as a Promising Source of Bioactive Molecules and Functional Properties: An Up-To-Date Review. Antibiotics 11(2):203, https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11020203
(5) Lace Z. et al. (2026) Glyphosate in apiculture: occurrence patterns across honey, pollen, and beebread. Food Control 180:111649, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2025.111649
